TorrentSpy to Appeal $110 Million Judgment

Site’s attorney says the defunct BitTorrent tracker site filed for bankruptcy in England last week and can’t afford to pay the amount ordered by the judge.

Yesterday I reported how the MPAA had won a $110 million USD judgment against the long defunct BitTorrent tracker site TorrentSpy for copyright infringement.

The award amounts to $30,000 per instance of copyright infringement, which was for some 3,699 movies and TV shows.

Now today in an interview with the site’s attorney, Ira Rothken, it’s being reported that they plan to appeal the amount of the judgment.

“What is really going on here is a Hollywood public-relations stunt,” Rothken said. “The reason for the size of the judgment was so a bunch of news organizations would write that ‘a $100 million judgment was issued against a bunch of pirates’ when, in fact, it was declared against a company with no appreciable assets that has already declared bankruptcy.”

He also called it an “abuse of discretion” because not only did the site declare bankruptcy in England last week and thus has no “appreciable assets,” but it really never got its day in court to prove or disprove the charges of copyright infringement.

What also proves the hollowness of the case is that it really sets no precedent for other BitTorrent-related lawsuits that they MPAA may choose to initiate in the future.

“The decision means absolutely nothing as it relates to other (BitTorrent cases),” Rothken said. “It issue was not decided on the merits. It’s obvious we are going to appeal.”

Jared Moya
I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus